Gotta share a quick story with y'all. 30 or so years ago in Dave's Gym locker room, a fellow lifter was parading around naked after finishing a sauna. I couldn't help noticing that he had a PENTAGRAM tattooed on his PEE PEE. I asked him if it hurt (referring to the tattooing procedure). His immediate reply? "No, but I can make it larger". I no longer peek at other men's junk.

Ideal Baloney wrote:Gotta share a quick story with y'all. 30 or so years ago in Dave's Gym locker room, a fellow lifter was parading around naked after finishing a sauna. I couldn't help noticing that he had a PENTAGRAM tattooed on his PEE PEE. I asked him if it hurt (referring to the tattooing procedure). His immediate reply? "No, but I can make it larger". I no longer peek at other men's junk.

Thanks for sharing IB!

"Preserving and protecting the principles of the Constitution is the primary role of the federal government."

Community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections have emerged as a major cause of skin disease in the United States (1). Outbreaks of CA-MRSA have occurred among athletes, inmates at correctional facilities, and military recruits (2--4). This report summarizes investigations of six unlinked clusters of skin and soft tissue infections caused by CA-MRSA among 44 recipients of tattoos from 13 unlicensed tattooists in three states (Ohio, Kentucky, and Vermont); use of nonsterile equipment and suboptimal infection-control practices were identified as potential causes of the infections. Clinicians should consider CA-MRSA in their differential diagnosis for staphylococcus diseases, including skin infections. Clinicians can contact their local health departments to determine the prevalence of CA-MRSA in their community and whether the disease is reportable. MRSA infections should be added to education and prevention campaigns highlighting the risks of unlicensed tattooing.

It's a Tattooed World: Regrets, they have a fewBut not many attractive removal options exist.

VIRGINIA BLACK South Bend Tribune

5:27 a.m. EST, January 18, 2012Taylor Winfield is wincing a little as she's lying on her back, a medical gown pulled aside to expose the area on her chest where a tattooist is in the process of covering her boyfriend's name with a purplish rose.

The 20-year-old wants to remove the dark letters hovering over her left breast because she's mad at her boyfriend -- who will be angry when he discovers it, she admits, because he thinks she's getting her nails done. (In case you're wondering, she says he sports a tattoo in her honor that reads "Taylor-made.")

It's a fairly common sight at the South Bend tattoo establishment she's visiting this day, managed by Scott Ryan."We put a lot of names on," he says, "and we cover a lot of names up."

Tattooists tend to photograph some of their best or more intricate work, and Rod Eckenberger's portfolio displays an intriguing before-and-after story:

One of the patrons to his Lakeville shop asked for a lovely, colorful portrait of his girlfriend's face, which blanketed his upper arm. A couple of years later, sure enough, the two split. So Eckenberger "zombie-fied" the portrait for the ex-boyfriend, reshading and reshaping the face and supplying the appropriate blood and such to "deaden her up."That ink might fade slightly over time, but the truth is that once you're tattooed, undoing it is a costly and painful proposition that usually makes covering up the most attractive option.

Dr. Todd Rozycki, a dermatologist with the South Bend Clinic, says he can't recall any of his patients asking about the risks of being tattooed beforehand. But he's often asked what it would take to remove one.

Every time, after he has explained the process, the questioner doesn't follow through.

This holds true with the experience of other dermatologists and plastic surgeons he knows, he says.

Laser treatments have come a long way toward lightening and eventually removing tattoos, Rozycki says.

They are an improvement over surgically excising tattoos, which can have side effects such as serious scars. Dermabrasion, a sort of sanding of the skin's layers, also isn't used often because of "horrendous" scarring potential.

But because of how deep a tattoo is placed, a patient typically has to spend multiple hundreds of dollars per laser session, undergoing many sessions, allowing for healing six to eight weeks between those sessions. The most colorful tattoos, he says, would likely take 15 sessions or more.

The most recent Intelligence Report of the Southern Poverty Law Center contains an article about a hate-group leader whose attitudes reportedly changed -- but whose heavily tattooed face still bore the racist signs of his past.

The article describes the painful, prolonged process the 34-year-old endured -- paid for by a donor -- to remove those symbols from his body.

Different sorts of tattoos require specialized types of lasers, which local doctors have to rent from a Chicago company, adding to the cost.

And what about those pervasive advertisements for tattoo removal creams?

"I would say that's a complete fallacy," Rozycki says. "There are no creams that can effectively remove a tattoo."

In fact, the ingredient used in a lot of those creams, an acid, is dangerous without supervision and can result in superficial burns.Coming tomorrow: Do tattoos have career ramifications?

Do tattoos have career ramifications?They might still be better off covered up

By VIRGINIA BLACK South Bend Tribune Staff Writer

11:31 p.m. EST, January 18, 2012Ryan Davis was 18 when he sought out his first tattoo.Now 28, the kitchen worker is a little wiser about how his mostvisible "stains" affect first impressions.

"This" -- he motions with his heavily inked hands toward a zipperacross his neck -- "doesn't help me out, I admit."

Those hands, when their knuckles are joined together a certain way,form a larger, intricate pattern. Davis thinks the zipper is rathersilly now. The hand designs are cool, but even so, he says he probablywouldn't do it again.

"You're always going to notice the hands," he says. "People stare atme all the time."Indeed, local experts suggest that in-your-face tattoos might be anextra career hurdle.

Ryan Watson coaches a lot of job hunters as an account representativefor Personnel Partners in South Bend.

He works with military veterans -- who have a long tradition of tattoos-- and in fact has six tattoos himself from his own military days.

"But I placed them accordingly so they can all be covered up at work,nothing visible," says Watson, 38.He advises job seekers to be aware of lingering attitudes, especiallyin professional or office settings.

"Regardless of how common tattoos get, there's always going to be thatstigma," he says.

Watson has a theory about why successful people, those "makingdecisions in the world" -- don't ink up: "Their expression of self istheir drive, what they create. There's something else that drivesthem," he says. "Not tattoos."

Chuck Knebl, communications manager for WorkOne of Northern Indiana,which works with unemployed people and companies seeking workers,offers another reason that managers are leery.

"Importantly, from the employer's perspective, a person who makes astatement of individualism runs counter to the employer's goal ofstrengthening the cohesion of a workplace team," Knebl wrote in ane-mail. "Thus, many employers would frown on visible tattoos in jobapplicants."

Some employers might be more lenient with positions that don't facethe public. But Watson points out that once an employer starts makingexceptions for some tattoos, deciding which are tasteful enough andwhich are not, they're entering a thorny area.

South Bend police spokesman Capt. Phil Trent shares that belief.

Potential police candidates are not allowed any visible tattoos, hesays, and that's the same with law enforce-ment agencies across thecountry.

"If I allow one tattoo and don't allow another one, I become, no punintended, the tattoo police," he says. "We're better off just to say,'Keep your views to yourself.' "

Police officers often are former military, too, and many of them --Trent included -- carry tattoos from those earlier days.

But if they're not covered, what might be personal or seeminglyinnocuous images to the wearer -- a tribal or religious tattoo, say --might mean something else to those an officer encounters.

"When the police walk into the room, they're supposed to be fair andimpartial and bring their fairness and impartiality with them," Trentsays. "If they want to know who I am and what I represent, they'regoing to have to communicate with me in some other way."

Watson says he'll advise job candidates to take out piercings for jobinterviews and to cover what tattoos they can."We'll say, 'You're excluding yourself with a visible tattoo,' " hesays. "Legally, you can't be excluded for cer-tain reasons, but as faras I'm aware, tattoos are not a protected class."

Mom Arrested for Letting 10 Year-Old Son Get TattooIn Life by LimeLife , on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 12:18 PM (PST)

.

Tattoos Are Permanent After AllA mom in Smyrna, Georgia is claiming ignorance of the law against allowing minors to be tattooed. Why? It seems that Chuntera Napier's son Gaquan wanted to memorialize his 12 year-old brother who died after being hit by a car with a tattoo and his mom was cool with it. The hitch? Gaquan is 10 and a Georgia law from 2010 strictly prohibits "any person to tattoo the body of any person under the age of 18." Whoops.

“My son came to me and said, ‘Mom, I want to get a tattoo with Malik on it, rest in peace,’” Napier, who has her own memorial tattoo for her son, told ABC News. “It made me feel good to know that he wanted his brother on him.”Why was Napier talking to the news outlet? Because when someone at school saw the memorial ink on Gaquan's right arm, they contacted the authorities who then arrested her, citing misdemeanor cruelty and being party to a crime.

“I always thought that if a parent gave consent, then it was fine,” she said. “How can somebody else say that it’s not okay? He’s my child, and I have the right to say what I want for my child. I can’t go tell anybody else what I want for their child," says Napier who is out on bail.

I think one or two small, discreet tattoos can be quite sexy on women. I'm talking discreet in the sense that they are seldom, if ever visible in the early spring or fall. Big, garish, inyourface, tats on women does still scream EASY RED MEAT to me. I'm not saying that's justified to think that, but it just does. In the interest of full disclosure: JDB does have a small chinese symbol for patience inked on my lower neck, almost between my shoulder blades. God knows I need all the help I can get with patience, so I thought it sure couldn't hurt!